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As much as I hate reading about all these silly rumors, I guess there’s not much else to report as far as Lakers news … so here’s my contribution to the rumor mill. It’s as about as unlikely as most of the others I’ve been reading of late. : )

If I’m taking a gamble on an older players I’m passing on Chris “I break down around the conference Finals every year” Paul and seeing if we can squeeze LBJ’s max deal into our cap space, instead. But I’d rather we content ourselves to either George or Cousins.

First it would take a lot more then Zo to land some of the names mentioned. Then he brings up the fantasy of Randle agreeing to a sign and trade. I think Randle plays in LA or Dallas next year. He doesn’t have to go anywhere he doesn’t want to.

Yes BI was great at the point last year. We went 8 and 2 but he has the potential to be a big time scorer and you take away some of that running the point. When we have BI, Kuz and Randle all with 20+ points per game potential. All 3 average 16 so 4 more is not a stretch. Zo is the perfect point guard for that as apposed to another scorer. He averaged 7 assists and 7 boards. But was most impressive to me was his defense. He was ranked 19th overall in the NBA in rookie year. That’s impressive.

Can’t reliably shoot or score in any way, can’t hit his free throws, lacks durability now but I’m not convinced that’s not just him hitting a rookie wall, and has Lavar. If his game doesn’t take a jump this coming season, expect those rumor winds to swirl loudly.

I agree, G.
He’s going to be a good PG in this League, but if you feel you can upgrade significantly at a position, then he should be the most expendable.
I’m convinced that Kuz will be a multiple time All Star and Brandon is not far behind.
Yes, Zo can become great, IF he learns to shoot.

The writer is lacking facts, first off can’t S&T a restricted free agent, he brings up trades for Lillard or DeRozan but the money is too far apart so you’d have to include other players (not named Deng, just isn’t going to happen) and mainly I think he’s the one Magic and Rob are the highest on.

But, for my part, I agree: he is the 4th best (currently) out of Kuzma, Randle, BI and Ball.

Ingram isn’t a long term solution at the point so I wouldn’t make that trade for Demar. Maybe for Dame since you gain an elite point guard in the deal. BI becomes very expendable if we land Paul George.

Lonzo’s passing, insticts, & better than expected defense make him valuable. Even modest increases in his shooting numbers will make him even more so. Probably too early to give up on him…

complicated but if they could package Lonzo with Deng, and get a trade similar to the Mozgov, Russell to the Nets trade, I would look it over very closely. Time for analytics. There is no way I would let two of the young 5 players (Lonzo, BI, Julius ….not sure if he’s tradeable for a while if they sign him, Kuzma, & Hart) go in order to make a deal work. I’d rather sit tight and return these players, resign Brook Lopez (at a reasonable and good enough numbers to make team and Brook, and his AGENT happy., and retain perhaps Ivica Zubac for ANOTHER year of look, or for trade bait. I can see KCP as not being a necessity for as great a job he did at times, he probably did not play for the value of an $18million player thru the whole season. He did have great games and moments, however, his spot could be filled by playing Josh Hart at that spot. Isiah Thomas would be a player I would like to have for another season. If he returns to his form of about 1.5 years ago, offensively (shooting) he’s better than Lonzo, playmaking, Lonzo has him, defensively Lonzo has him again, but in terms of “heart”….I have yet to see Lonzo show or say anything that shows he can be a true leader. Most likely it will either be Kuzma or BI. I’m still not wanting LBJ signing. His style of play will not mesh. He will clash with his coach, former teammate?, Luke Walton. Andre Ingram was a great fantasy story, which he deserved. But the Lakers could try to pick up a player such as Kevin Huerter from Maryland (12 years younger, a much more orthodox shot, and a much quicker release, plus about 4 inches taller, a guy who can play the role of Kyle Korver without looking like an ad for the American Arthritis Association.

The question you have ask is who can you realistically get in a trade and what is a writers fantasy. The Trailblazers are not trading a 1st team all NBA superstar entering his prime and start over. And I would trade any of the kids for a 2nd tier star like CJ or DeRozan. They all will be pretty good players. As for Randle he can’t be signed and traded without consent. If they just sign he can’t be traded until December

When you have s guy who can play two, possibly three positions, who creates serious problems for just about every team in the League, is the heart and soul of your D, and hasn’t reached his peak, you keep him.

at this point, Lonzo isn’t any less important than BI was at the beginning of last year, or than Julius was at the beginning of last year. if he stumbles next year, then he’s disposable. otherwise, he’s been great shooting woes and all, regardless of his father’s nonsense.

no, he was great. he’s obviously in the league a year or two early, he has a loud crazy dad saying outlandish things, Magic and Pelinka ooozed about him, Lakers fans are unreasonable and rabid and have very high standards, he has a crazy girlfriend who is pregnant, he’s barley been out of the house before, and everybody watches and disects every mistake, yet he did not crumble. when his shot didn’t fall, he played defense and keep the team in a good offense even more seriously.

there were a lot of reasons for Lonzo to be ground into dust, ala the 1st round pick in Philly, ala the other first round pick in Charlotte. he kept a cool head and worked on his game the entire time. that is the definition of great success for THAT rookie.

as i said, if he is a guy like Russell, who comes in the next year looking like the same guy from the year before(unlike Randle or BI), then he would definitely be worth moving. (imo)

i can understand your disappointment, but the Lakers were better when he was in the game, even when his shot was not falling.

Look where he ranked among the league leaders for point guards in rebounds, assists and steals. The Lakers were 24-28 with him in the lineup (11-19 when he was not on the floor). I expect that will improve dramatically now that the 20 year old has 2/3 of a season under his belt. I don’t have a clue what Lakers fans saw with their eyes. Obviously it was games missed due to injury, a weird looking shot and poor finishing at the rim. I saw a special playmaker, a surprising excellent perimeter defensive player, one of the best rebounding guards in the NBA and a potentially transcendent player.

You guys are underrating the value of Lonzo Ball. He’s Draymond Green from the point guard position. He rebounds, defends, dishes, blocks shots and, for now at least, is hot and cold as a shooter and isn’t relied upon to score. It’s like saying that Jason Kidd was expendable. Well, I guess he was, but he’s a Hall of Famer. Lonzo might be the most transcendent player on the team. After watching a team miss 27 three pointers in a row yesterday, is three point shooting really your priority? If you think he will always be a mediocre three point shooter simply based on his form, then you’re just stupid. You don’t trade a unique talent like Lonzo.

You don’t think he’ll figure that out? Look how Randle has improved at the rim in three seasons. It’s about learning how to play among the trees in the NBA and footwork. His footwork is poor, but that is something that will improve with time. Guys like Donovan Mitchell are special in that regard, but Lonzo has the length and athleticism to figure it out. It’s the least of my concerns.

I don’t know…I hope a #2 overall pick could figure out how to make shots from 3ft in. Just sayin… The point is that I’ll be happy when he’s just able to achieve some of the most basic shooting standards. Just gimme decent layup & free throw numbers for now…that ain’t a huge achievement. We’ll takcle the atrocious midrange & 3pt numbers later…lol

I am. He’s already GREAT at certain things and will improve in those areas of concern. Obviously his 3 point shooting and finishing (and his Nashing) are huge areas for improvement, but do you seriously question whether he will improve in those areas?

Dude..what da fukk are you going on about?
I said I’ll be happy when he starts making layups…which he struggled at. Do I think he’ll never figure it out? Of course not. I’ll be happy when he does. That’s it that’s all.

Golden State is still the champ until otherwise proved. Rockets are headed back to the drawing board but the honest truth is everything about Golden State is better. The players, the coaches, the experience and on down the line. It’s one reason why a lot of teams will try to underpay players and we may have a chance to slip in on something good. Too bad so many potential signees suffered serious injury during the season.

Sign Capela for as much as you can clear! Clint is the perfect modern defensive center. First, he guards Steph one-on-one and blocks his layup. Then he steals the ball from him on a one-and-one isolation. Did I hear somebody say Lopez is better than Capela. LMAO.

Brook is OK. Capela is special. He can actually guard five positions. And protect the rim if he’s anywhere near it. So long and athletic. Houston would be stupid to let him go even to sign LeBron. I would give him the max. He could be more important than PG. Add him to our current core of Lonzo, Josh, Brandon, Kyle, and Julius and you have a future dynasty.

Keep watchin’, GDUB. The more you see of him, the more you’ll understand why he would be a perfect fit for the Lakers young core. Capela is a legitimate elite rim protector and finisher who can actually switch everything and guard all five positions including point guard. In other words, he’s a center who can play traditional center or small ball center at 7′ 0″.

That’s just it, mud … LT speaks of Clint as if he is a dominant difference-maker and he’s not. He’s a very solid role player … nuthin’ more IMO and certainly not worth a max contract. Maybe not even for Houston.

You really think that a duo of Randle and Capella works? Lonzo better REALLY improve that three point shot because they’ll play the lob every time. CP3 and Harden create all the space for Capella to glide so very easily to the rim. Same way SVG did for Dwight in Orlando. Space isn’t created in a vacuum…waitaminute…space IS a vacuum!!!!

Also, Brook brings more skills to the table than Clint. Capella does, like, three things really well. Brook does at least 5 things pretty well to very well. All depends on who we keep and who gets away, for me, anyhow.

I see it more of a ‘Julius is better than Clint’ than a ‘Lopez is better than Capella’ equation.

If we signed Capela, Kuzma would obviously be the logical starter. I don’t expect the Lakers to go after Capela and I do expect them to keep Randle. But I would love it if they decided to go after Clint. He fits exactly what we want to do on offense.

I saw that. Look, all this mindless talk about Plan A and Plan B and this trade and that trade. Yes, I know it’s a blog and that’s the purpose of blogging, but realistically, “max” free agents sign with their own team for the money or go ring chasing. Our last truly big signing was Shaq. So forget about them, including Paul George. As for trading for a guy like Kawhi Leonard, the last time a deal for an all-star in his prime came along for the Lakers was Pau Gasol. They are tough trades to make, yet they are made (e.g., recently Kyrie, Butler, PG), but the Lakers are in the unenviable position of, well, being the Lakers, which seems to make it even tougher. Plan A should be sticking with the young core, matching on Randle and signing young, complimentary pieces.

Players are impatient. They signed at a rapid clip last season. I was amazed at all the pre-July 1st leakage and sure enough they signed with the rumored teams they were linked to. The only reason we got KCP is lucking into him and then he got way overpaid. They should have paid him 1.5 mil less so we could have retained David Nwaba. That was a mistake.

So if Magic plays the Mitch/Jim game and targets Paul George and he takes his sweet time, guys like KCP and Brook Lopez will take the first good deal they can get. This happened with guys who the Lakers could have retained like Ed Davis, Jodie Meeks and Kent Bazemore as the front office dilly dallied and passed on many players in that process, both our own and outside mid tier free agents. Sure, that might have been deliberate, but now we finally have the makings of an NBA basketball team, so rather than flashing the P&G ego as players rapidly come off the board, it’s time to be sensible and continue to build. I hope they are thinking outside that P&G box a little, although I doubt that is in Magic’s DNA.

He’s been injured, playing restricted minutes, sitting out back to back games for most of his career so it’s understandable that his conditioning ain’t the greatest. Seems like it should be full speed ahead this summer though.

That might be an interesting series, if it were to happen. The Cs have SO many players they can throw at u with young legs and tons of energy. Would be fun to see how they might fare against the defending champs.

Baynes got the best of Embiid the entire series. Embiid is incredibly gifted as an athlete. he’s just not that good of a basketball player. normally, this is hard to see because his gifts overpower his weaknesses by a huge margin. in the playoffs, however, teams have time to attack those weaknesses.

Embiid is head and shoulders abovew Baynes in the NBA pecking order, but somehow Baynes was able to use his strength to frustrate Embiid to the point that trash talking wasn’t helping. Embiid needs to spend less time working on twitter and more time working on his game. his footwork is already phenomenal, just from his baseline level of coordination.

Baynes played well, but he also got away with a few.fouls that coulda changed the outcome … that’s the benefit of playin’ on ur home floor. Plus, Philly coulda easily have won a couple of those earlier games. I doubt Joel will be having much trouble with Mr.Baynes for the rest of his career.